Monday, August 24, 2015

Fordington Remembered - by Anita Harries from 'Durnovaria Diaries'

What do you do when summer turns to winter overnight, when the rain comes down
so hard you wonder whether you should put away the deckchairs and build an ark?

You pick up a book, sit yourself down with a blues-banishing cup of coffee and
immerse yourself in another world. Fordington Rememberedby
David Forrester is one of those wonderful books that takes you on a journey
through Dorchester as he vividly brings to life the experience of living here
post-war.

This was without doubt the “wrong end of the town” where families were
disadvantaged, times were often difficult but people went about their daily
lives working hard yet keeping a smile on their faces.

It is heart-warming to
read David’s reminiscences, from St. George’s Infants School to the still
familiar names of much loved shops, some still with us but many lost to the
relentless march of progress, the Magpies football team, street scenes and the
wide open fields that in those days hugged the boundaries of our town.

It was
refreshing to read of an area that means so much to my family. My dad and my
grandparents spent many years in Holloway Road, my grandfather in particular
gave the Swan Inn the dubious benefit of his custom on many an occasion, and
certainly at least one of my brothers attended St. George’s Infants School.

And
I can just about recall deliveries made by horse and cart, perhaps one of my
earliest memories of my Fordington experiences – that and playing in the river
despite the extraordinary range of items that appeared in there with alarming
regularity. Not actually a part of Dorchester for much of its history, it is
now a far more respectable area of the town. Has it now lost much of the
character it once had, has time dulled its appeal? I guess many would argue the
point, but it is certainly more “up-market” than it was in the times depicted
in David’s book.

How fortunate we are that his memoirs and vivid recollections have created such
an important record of the social history, not just of Fordington but of
post-war life in many other rural areas across the country.

It is a good read,
humorous, light-hearted, thought-provoking, depressing in places yet an open
and honest account of growing up and surviving in what was then one of our poorest
areas.

Published by Roving Press,
and with some of the proceeds going to the Rotary Foundation and the Dorset MESupport Group, I would recommend it as a book worth reading whether or not you
have a personal affinity with Fordington. Well done David ……. And the wonderful
array of photos are worth a look alone!

Publisher's note: we are currently working on a second book with David based on the Mill Street area of Fordington, Thomas Hardy's notorious 'Mixen Lane'. The book is part of the Mill Street Project, in association with the Mill Street Housing Society which is supplying many of the old photographs (some of which appear in this blog). The book will be out in time for Christmas. For details see our website (www.rovingpress.co.uk).